Walking Dead Guide: The Show vs. The Comic Book

The Walking Dead is the biggest thing right now, and that makes me really happy; not just for Frank Darabont, who’s finally gotten a recent project off the ground that isn’t a Stephen King adaptation (or, uh, The Majestic), but for creators Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, who brought into the world a comic that was selling boffo numbers long before the TV series came out.

Still, it’s hard not to compare and contrast the two, especially when it comes to a TV show adapting a comic book with scores of fans. Plus, as visual mediums, comics and cinema are cousins that look a lot alike but are, in many ways, very different. You can especially see some surface-level similarities between comics and TV, both known for serialized installments and trade paperback collects kind of resembling full season DVDs.

Despite being a visual medium, Robert Kirkman writes an incredibly verbose comic in The Walking Dead. Characters speak in paragraphs that fill the pages, and much of it would sound rotten if spoken aloud by real actors. Not to say his dialogue is bad per se, but it was written to be read, not spoken. To see what I mean, go watch The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The script was by James Dale Robinson, of such comics as the classic 1990s Starman and the current Justice League of America, and you can tell he writes comics because the characters make declarations about what’s on screen, which (bad) comic books do, but movies don’t have to. Apparently Kirkman himself is writing episode 4 of the show, “Vatos,” and I’m curious how he’ll fare. Hopefully somebody on staff will set him right as far as screenwriting versus comic book scripting.

In the first episode of The Walking Dead, “Days Gone Bye,” Frank Darabont crafts an excellent adaptation of the initial issues of Kirkman’s comic by taking out all the words and relying on pure visual storytelling to drive the narrative. Protagonist Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wanders this unfamiliar, zombie-infested world with nary a word uttered until he actually locates some semblance of humanity. Even when Rick is alone, Kirkman can’t restrain himself from throwing in some needless word balloons: “Gasp!” or “What happened here?” Those don’t even really work on the page, and on screen they’d just remove all the tension — which the first episode has in spades.

Episode 2, “Guts,” is closer to the comics in terms of execution, as it features lots of characters talking. Unfortunately, the gaggle of survivors totally lack depth, with such winners as Merle the cartoon racist (Michael Rooker) and a large black man named T-Dog (IronE Singleton). It’s the year 2010, The Wire set a new standard for nicknaming black characters, and still — T-DOG. Even beloved character Glenn doesn’t feel right as Steven Yeun is forced to utter some ponderous dialogue.

Episode 3, “Tell It to the Frogs” gives us what we should probably come to expect from the series if the comics are any indication. The episode focuses on character interaction, using zombie very sparingly. The big draw of The Walking Dead (like, to some extent, zombie classics as Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later) is the interpersonal conflict. If you can’t get into the characters there’s no reason to care if they survive. Here Darabont and company finally start to paint their characters in ways that make them resemble human beings.

When I heard The Walking Dead was going to be faithful to the comic, I was worried. More accurately, I was afraid that Frank Darabont would be adapting every issue into an episode, word-for-word, and thus give viewers like me little surprise and forcing me to wonder just what the point was of experiencing the same exact story twice in two different mediums. So far this isn’t the case.

Thankfully, the show is close enough to the comics to capture just what made them great, but with enough surprises to keep people like me interested. For one thing, he develops Morgan — who, in the comics, is pretty much just the guy who delivers exposition to Rick/the readers — into an honest-to-goodness character with an identifiable personal conflict, so much that I’m hoping he joins the main cast sooner than later.

One of the more dramatic changes to the story in TV form is the creation of Merle Dixon (played by the wonderful Michael Rooker) as the guy who Rick inadvertently causes to get abandoned amidst a zombie attack in Atlanta. In the comics Rick and Glenn return to Atlanta just to pick up more guns, which is a bit video gamey and akin to the concerns of early episodes of Lost — ooh, we discovered the water part of the map! With Merle’s life in danger, Rick’s not given more reason to go back to the city after just reuniting with his wife, but the show sets up Rick as the guy who takes it upon himself to make tremendously difficult decisions that affect the other characters in the series. So far in the series Rick has been a boring character compared to Shane (who seems like the chillest bro in the apocalypse), but given the knowledge of where Rick’s character is headed in the comics I hope they bring some more of those “heavy is the head” moments to the earlier installments. Great thing about narrative hindsight.

Shane is the other big change, as the show actually tries to make him likable. The comic casts him as the asshole who tries to take Rick’s woman, while the show sets him up as the guy who Rick is essentially usurping — who begins the series talking about how his one-night stands always leave his lights on and soon finds himself with a surrogate family in the form of Rick’s wife and son, who are convinced poor Rick is dead. Which makes sense because, um, zombies. Shane’s also a lot more fun than Rick, who as of yet has no personality traits except leadership.

Having read the comics voraciously (at the risk of skipping work — deadly for a freelancer), I’m glad The Walking Dead the TV show is deviating from The Walking Dead the comic book. While I’m sure the major twists and turns will still be there, I still feel like I don’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s essential to the Walking Dead experience.

The show from the beginning completely deviates from the comic in a negative. Seriously, the comic is amazing and the longer the show continues to move in a different direction, the worse it becomes. I absolutely love the zombie genre and the more I see this show, the more I am saddened by seeing it waste such awesome potential set in place by the comic. I could go on for days on this one so I will cut it short and leave everyone with one word…. “DISAPPOINTED!!!!!”

I don’t get why Carl can’t kill shane, and the Andrea Dale thing had to get cut. I’m sure Mr. Kirkman has good stuff in store. We atleast have 23 more episodes, I can’t really be DISSAPOINTED, because it’s not a panel for panel copy from the books.

First of all, show is WAY too dramatic, less character development and pointless bitching and more story progression and action. Most of the 2nd season has been searching for a girl who is still alive in the comics… Bunch of BULLSHIT. I can understand changing the tv series from the comics because of view interest, but they have made it so dramatic and different that is might as well not even be related to the comic.

If you want to catch up with the comics, they haven’t even made it passed the 14th issue. This being said, the comic is almost to a 100 issues.

Boo….Kirkman and gang are going in a different direction with the TV show vs the comic series…As a long time Romero / Zombie fan, and buying all the Walking Dead comics from the get go…I like anything with zombies…But I am extremely disappointed in the AMC TV version of things, for it is NOT how the comic unfolds…Turning into a ‘soap opera’ with the characters…whereas the comic was very well written with great plot lines…Sadly, with the TV show unfolding like it is, not sure if it will have more than a season or two left? : (

wow. people just cant enjoy the series on AMC for what it is. they bitch and complain about it but yet they watch the ENTIRE season. Look, its fine that its not directly from the comic books. it is perhaps more enjoyable this way in my opinion. i get to see two different stories of my favorite series. which is always a plus. the fact is the AMC show is awesome and enjoyable to watch. the comics are awesome. lets call it what it is. just because the preference is the comics over the show doesnt mean that the show is awe full because well, its not. its fantastic. and if you say other wise then its alright. the T.V. show is not for you.

I really like the show, but sometimes it seems like there’s drama, tension, and conflict just for the drama/conflict/tension’s sake. I’ve hated each character too often because of dumb things they say and/or do. Then there are other moments, where there’s tension practically built into the episode or scene, and they make it super easy. Last night’s season finale for example… Rick’s wife tells him to kill Shane–he does (in self-defense) and she acts like he’s disgusting and unsafe. I wondered if this was a directing, writing, or acting mistake. It distracted me. If they hadn’t had the scene in the tent where she told him to kill Shane, I would’ve bought it, but they needed to cram another tense moment into that episode as well…

As far as hard being easy: Zombies surprise the group and overrun the farm, they scramble and drive in different directions. Miraculously, they turn up bumper to bumper one after another the next morning… It would be easier to suspend disbelief in this world if the difficult things were difficult, and the character’s made sense.That said, I still will watch it every week. I love it and even when I hate it, I love to hate it.